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Topic: Misc. Items (Read 7780 times)

FYISteel replaced bronze [Bronze Age to Iron Age] not because iron/steel is so much better or stronger than bronze; in fact, bronze swords were in many ways superior to iron or steel swords. However, iron ore is vastly more abundant than deposits of copper. And on top of that, iron swords were much more easily repaired, something an army appreciates enormously.

Good luck finding a bronze trowel... but it would be a treasure, for sure.

FYISteel replaced bronze [Bronze Age to Iron Age] not because iron/steel is so much better or stronger than bronze; in fact, bronze swords were in many ways superior to iron or steel swords. However, iron ore is vastly more abundant than deposits of copper. And on top of that, iron swords were much more easily repaired, something an army appreciates enormously.

Good luck finding a bronze trowel... but it would be a treasure, for sure.

There is a place in the UK that sells bronze tools, which IIRC are about 90 -95% (or greater) copper, and their watering can is 100% copper. They do have a few distributors in the U.S. They are (from memory) kupferspuren.at and if that's not correct, I'll edit this with a correction.

I did buy a couple of trowels and have found them to be far superior to steel tools, even the "high-carbon" steel trowels. The seem stronger, and over the years I've never found/used a steel trowel that I didn't eventually bend or break out of its mooring. If the bronze one comes out of its handle, it will get a new handle.

Another bonus with bronze tools is that in a heavy-duty bombardment with all kinds of electromagnetic "stuff", bronze should be unaffected, whereas, according to Jim Farmer, steel has been known to explode. I also imagine that if it did not explode, there would be many scenarios in which the steel might disintegrate into its component elements: iron, nickel, chromium and whateve else, if the force or field is strong enough.

If you EVER see a bronze scythe blade, please yell, as that's on my short list but haven't seen any yet. Surely it wouldn't be all that different from a bronze sword.! Both need to be as sharp as bronze can be made, and once you have the blade, you can makeshift some sort of snath or handle. That would be the easy part.

Then there are those "stick fences" used by many Native peoples for keeping out wildlife. I built one a few years ago and it worked fine, EXCEPT it was constant work repairing holes near the ground which rabbits always found. This type of fence is best in a tribal situation, something Marshall reminds us of--one or two people alone will/would have great difficulty even maintaining a wooden fence if there were hungry rabbits, raccoons, deer, etc. around.

Buffalo Bird Woman writes about the "watchers" who were usually teenage boys placed in charge of keeping the drying corn safe from wildlife. It does take a village....

teenage boys placed in charge of keeping the drying corn safe from wildlife. It does take a village...

Unfortunately [sorry to be a buzz-kill], i've been working since 2009 [!] to find any like-minded folk and have failed miserably...

Keeping in mind the ancient stories [people like Paul LaViolette and Velikovsky quote in their books] talking about "a handful" or "a couple" of people coming out of their caves after the end... it is, unfortunately, very very doubtful you will manage to get a whole village to make it through to the end...

Better to base your efforts on the 'safe assumption'... [sic] that you'll be going it alone...

teenage boys placed in charge of keeping the drying corn safe from wildlife. It does take a village...

Unfortunately [sorry to be a buzz-kill], i've been working since 2009 [!] to find any like-minded folk and have failed miserably...

Keeping in mind the ancient stories [people like Paul LaViolette and Velikovsky quote in their books] talking about "a handful" or "a couple" of people coming out of their caves after the end... it is, unfortunately, very very doubtful you will manage to get a whole village to make it through to the end...

Better to base your efforts on the 'safe assumption'... [sic] that you'll be going it alone...

Often when meeting new and likable people, I subconsciously am assessing their potential as tribe-mates. Not sure when this began, but it just sort of wanders into my consciousness. But I cannot bring myself to bring up any topic that is too offbeat, as I've "been there, done that" and not interested in the deer-in-the-headlights look anymore. Haven't figured out a good way to bring certain topics into the conversation. Maybe it's best to wait for them to do so.

Speaking of scythes, I did finally work on a snath for my "brush scythe" which is considerably heavier than a grass scythe. It also requires a slightly different move of the body, hands, and arms if one is cutting down 1" diameter saplings, which grass scythe wouldn't do anyway.

Am posting two pics, one of the scythe before it's finished, and is lying on floor aligned with the lower part that I just sawed off, but before adding the second handle. The first "handle", the fat part at the top, is also sawed from an old American scythe snath.

The second pic shows finished brush scythe, the snath being the "sawed-off snath" from an old American scythe (useless in my view). The side handle is made of cedar I found in the woods, and the clamps holding the blade to the snath are something I found in our "junk area" that I believe are part of the apparatus for holding cyclone fence to its posts!

The only thing I might have to do is drill out the cedar handle at an angle, and replace it with walnut or elm--something really rugged, as my first use of this thing tells me that will have to happen. It's a start.

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